Driving Down the Wrong Lane
by ComedySuze
Summary: The team re-open and investigate a murder case of a popular Book Publishing Tycoon and soon discover he had some dark secrets. Brian meets someone who claims they were connected to the deceased tycoon who offers to help the team with solving the case but can they be trusted.
1. Chapter 1

**Driving Down the Wrong Lane**

**Chapter 1**

It were the first time ever Brian Lane had suddenly gambled on taking a shortcut through the back streets of the capital. He'd been cycling slowly and carefully on his bicycle along the cycle lane that Friday morning, some of the red double-decker buses were blocking the route and getting him frustrated. He knew he couldn't exactly cycle as quickly as that Bradley Wiggins whenever it came to street cycling. Brian looked further down towards the end of the high street and caught a glimpse of two uniformed officers standing behind a cordoned off street

Curiosity got the better of him all of a sudden as he asked a younger cyclist who was currently alongside him. "Why's the road blocked off?"

The younger cyclist temporarily removed his cycling sunglasses, angled his head to one side as he surveyed the scene before him. "As far as I'm aware looks like there's been a road accident. I really don't know anything else." he didn't look too impressed by having to wait around. Things didn't seem like they were going to improve anytime soon. He turned to look over at Brian, only to see that he'd gotten annoyed and cycled away, selecting another preferred route. Nothing was going to try and prevent him from getting to work on time.

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Just after 10:15am that morning in the UCOS office, In her office Sandra had the last five minutes on the phone had arranging for the team to visit a publishing office. Strickland had given her permission to make the call as part of a re-investigation into the unsolved murder of a Book Publishing Tycoon Arthur Baxter. Gerry had been given the inevitable task of guarding the office door and letting Sandra know when Brian had arrived.

"Not like Brian to be this late this morning." Gerry said, speculating. Every morning of the working weekday Brian had never once been late on schedule on arriving to work.

"I don't know why you're making a big deal Gerry, he's just delayed. He's probably had to take a long route or he's got a punctured tyre." Jack suggested, he wasn't too fussed on guessing.

"Well when he does show up, Sandra's not going to satisfied with the excuse he gives her. She's already had to put up with enough with stress in here this week. She doesn't need Strickland reprimanding her again " Gerry told him.

Sandra appeared unexpectedly by Brian's desk just as he was carrying his bicycle in through the door. "Where the bloody hell have you been?" Gerry was right, she didn't look happy and looked stressed out.

"Sorry, I had a snapped chain on me bike..had to carry this up the stairs.." Brian apologized as soon as possible. He went to place it in the far hand corner of the office.

"You could have taken the lift." Gerry pointed out, making a resolvable suggestion. Sandra cut him off from talking.

"Right well now you're here, I've organized for all of us to go to the Baxter Smith Publishing office this afternoon. Strickland's given us the go ahead into the investigating the Arthur Baxter case." Sandra explained to them.

"Didn't that happen 12 years ago, yes that's right. I remember in the previous investigation someone mentioned that he'd been killed by a lift on the fifth floor, with a heavy object. Very gory the details..." A few brief memories of this particular case triggered in Gerry's thoughts.

"Well we're going to speaking to a Mrs Karen Oakfield, she's running the business now." Sandra added, she hoped Gerry wouldn't allow himself to be getting distracted by the female receptionist while they were there. As sometimes he genuinely like to especially when they visited a specific working office and if the receptionist smiled and flirted with him.

**End of Chapter**

**All Reviews are welcome**


	2. Chapter 2

**Driving Down The Wrong Lane**

**Chapter 2**

As they'd turned up that same afternoon as intended at the Baxter Smith Publications office, the UCOS team were left surprised and impressed as they soon found themselves being quickly shown to where Mrs Oakfield's miniature office precisely was. The UCOS team were forced to walk through a crowded office environment, Brian couldn't believe his eyes, this particular office had plenty of a notable office belongings, an in-wall touchscreen with numerous features, which was probably used for draft suggestions. He also spotted a coffee machine in the corner of the room. Gerry who had only been walking a few steps behind Brian, released an apprehensive sigh and started to talk. "Come on Brian mate, now's not exactly the time to be marveling at state of the art typewriters."

"I can't help it, you got to admit this place definitely has everything, a fancy coffee machine." Brian looked around, with a conspicuous look of unadulterated glee.

"So doesn't necessarily make this place look like Nasa's headquarters though does it." Gerry disagreed with him.

As he and Sandra finally reached Karen Oakfield's see through glass office door, Jack looked back over his right shoulder and caught a glimpse of his colleagues slowly wandering behind. "Are you two going to be standing there all day, squabbling like two stroppy teenagers or are you going to be taking an actual interest in our re-investigation case?" he called over to them.

"Sorry Jack, I'm blaming Iron Man Brian here for taking my eyes off the ball regarding the case." Gerry replied and walked over to where his colleagues were. "Right shouldn't we be knocking on the door by now." Gerry asked while trying as much as possible to remain relaxed despite knowing the fact that he believed he wasn't a man who enjoyed waiting around .

"All in perfectly good time" Jack said, as he turned his attention away and waited alongside Sandra.

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Judging by the countless trophies and golden framed photographs within her office, It had really only taken just one fleeting glance for the UCOS team to acknowledge that Karen Oakfield was unquestionably a prosperous and distinguished woman. She had the unique charm and appeal of a smart businesswoman. "What can I say about Arthur that hasn't already been mentioned." She found herself mulling over Sandra's first question, most likely thinking about an answer.

Brian without any hesitation decided to ask an easy question instead. He was sympathetic and presumed that she must have been asked the same question during the original investigation. "Did he... Arthur did he happen to come to blows with anyone he worked over some disagreements?"

"Come to think of it, there was this one time when Julian James one of junior publishers stormed out of Arthur's office a few days before Christmas Eve. Never really found out the reason behind it. Arthur was always a confidential man, never liked anyone gossiping about him. Julian never returned after Christmas." Karen replied.

"How many times I had they both argued?" Jack asked her, he sat forward in the leather chair.

"I don't know..perhaps once or twice. After the New Year, I couldn't understand why Arthur became oversensitive when I advised him to book a last minute holiday for himself. " A detectable sense of sadness echoing within her voice. "I remembering mentioning this during the original case but I want to mention this again, I really hope you find the person responsible."

"Oh we will" Sandra promised, she turned to right and looked across at Gerry who seemed deep in thought. "Gerry any thing else you'd like to ask?" She noticed he'd been rather tight lipped from the moment they'd all stepped into Karen Oakfield's office.

"Not yet...uhm actually you don't happen to know Julian James' home address do you by any chance?" He asked her, he was completely trusting his gut instinct and most importantly his old-school experience on this one.

"I'm afraid we don't have them Mr Standing. Former employees personal records were thrown away around five years ago" Karen said.

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Back at UCOS, within three minutes or so Brian had managed to do a half completed background check on Julian James on his computer. "Surname's very familiar, his father's name was Billy James. I remember him getting arrested for armed bank robbery back in the mid 1980's. A right hooligan he was. Nobody could cope with his erratic behaviour. Ahh " A mug-shot picture of a scruffy looking man soon became visible on Brian's computer. He took a closer glance at the information provided below this picture. "Julian Bernard James, first arrested 15 years ago for aggravated burglary on a residential home, he pleaded not guilty to the charges that were read to him in court. Eventually found guilty but given a suspended sentence. Arrested again 2 years later for ABH on a nightclub bouncer in the East End but never properly charged as the bouncer dropped the accusations against him. It's a wonder how he was capable of getting a fully paid job."

"Bet he cleverly lied on his cv." Gerry suggested suddenly while he held a mug in his hand.

"What?" Jack asked him.

"Well isn't it obvious, a lot of these job seekers tell a lie on their cv nowadays." Gerry alleged.

"Well okay maybe." Jack slowly began to agree with him.

"I got an address for Julian." Brian rose from his chair as he announced this.

Gerry grabbed a pen and notepad from his desk before going across to Brian's desk and having a stare at the screen, writing the address down.

"Hopefully he hasn't moved elsewhere in the past year." Brian told him.

_Julian Bernard James_

_12 RockFerry Street_

_Upper Clapton_

"Right got it, better let Sandra know." Gerry suggested to them and went to retrieve his trench-coat from the coat hanger.

**End of Chapter**

**All Reviews Are Welcome**


	3. Chapter 3

**New Tricks: Driving Down the Wrong Lane**

**Chapter 3**

Gerry had driven himself and Sandra to the exact address, they were both remained optimistic and hopeful that they'd be able to uncover the full picture of Arthur Baxter's unexplained death from this Julian who they weren't necessarily treating as a prime suspect just yet until they gathered enough evidence to arrest and eventually charge him with. "Well this is Rockferry Street, house number 12 should be on the left hand side." Gerry said, whilst glancing around the nearby surroundings, mostly beech trees and graffiti sprayed from corner to corner street brickwork.

A few minutes later Sandra was knocking on the silver letterbox of number 12, while Gerry looked through the front living room window to check to see if anyone or if Julian could actually be in the house. "What's the betting that's he knows we're here to talk to him and he's trying desperately to avoid opening the door to us perhaps?" He suggested. "Hang on someone's in there, a male in his late 30's, that's got to be him." Sandra knocked again and got a quick answer as a tall male individual started walking through hallway and towards the front door, which he then finally opened to her.

"Yes, can I help you?" He asked, he looked as though he might have been the only male resident of the house. Judging by his unkempt appearance, of torn striped blue pyjama bottoms and wild bed hair, it seemed he was struggling to keep up with paying for brand new clothes and bathroom products.

"Yes you can Mr James, I'm Sandra Pullman of UCOS, this is my colleague Gerry Standing. We're re-investigating the murder of Arthur Baxter..." She explained everything thoroughly but within a matter of 30 seconds she soon found herself cut off through mid sentence by him.

"You'd better come in. Don't want my neighbours to be nosing " Julian said, he politely showed them into the house. He followed behind them after closing the door behind him. As soon as he joined them in the front living room, he had something important to mention. "Let me guess, you think I killed Arthur don't you." Julian asked unexpectedly. Karen's made the accusation hasn't she because she considered me to be a troublemaker back in the day."

Gerry spoke first before Sandra could. "Well yes in a way, she told us you and Arthur didn't quite get along with each other. We'd just like to know and for you to tell us why exactly you bickered with him so much. Was it over wages or personal issues?"

"With Arthur it was about everything, the finger of blame time after time getting pointed towards me. Accusing me of bringing down the reputation of the company by not reaching a deadline and then calling me a lazy bastard for taking off from work without phoning up. At times I admit I wanted to punch his lights out but I wouldn't go as far as killing him." Julian said, sighing.

"So why do you think Karen bought your name up?" Sandra asked him.

"Honestly I'm asking myself the same question. The only answer I can give you is because she didn't like me and didn't want to work alongside me. She might have thought I was a undependable person, with her she enjoyed working alongside professional publishers." Julian gave a convincing enough answer.

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Meanwhile back at the UCOS office, Brian looked preoccupied while undertaking a background check on the Baxter Publishing website on his computer. Getting lucky straight away as he managed to bring up a long- list of former employees. "Oh for crying out loud, this is going to take me forever to search through!" he shouted in annoyance, his right hand clenched tightly, this attracted Jack's attention.

"I can help you if you want" Jack suggested, not waiting for answer as he was quick on the uptake by checking out the Company's online website himself. Baxter Publishing's online web page definitely seemed to have too many hyperlinks and bright enough layout on it's front page. He clicked on one of the links which bought up a page with award winning publishers who'd worked for Arthur Baxter between 1986 and up until his untimely death. A Christmas office party picture was bought up on another page, names were listed underneath and dates of when each employee started were listed beneath their names. Three names suddenly grabbed Jack's interest. "Lewis Dawkins, Martin Geoffrey, Oliver Trott seems they were childhood friends with him as well as working for him."

"I've heard of Oliver Trott, Esther's always shopping in his bookstore in Gordon Street by the High Street. Reckon we could go and speak to him. You know see if he can possibly shed some light on what he knows about his former friend and Julian." Brian recommended. "We'd better leave a message for Sandra and Gerry, tell them we're we've gone to." Not one to hang around for too long, Brian instantly reached his hand over to the coat hanger by his desk and retrieved his coat before turning to leave the office.

"Hang on wait for me." Jack called after him as he finished writing out the note for his other colleagues, leaving it on his computer screen.

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After leaving Julian's posh pad house, Gerry and Sandra were now on their way back to the office. "You know he really doesn't look like someone who'd be violently lashing out at anybody and beating them to a bloody pulp. Maybe he's right about Karen, her being a posh educated name dropper. So what do you think we should do next? have a look for other names of people who worked at the company."

"Good idea Gerry but I've got a strong feeling Jack and Brian have most likely beaten you to it." Sandra said, she wrote a few imperative questions down as bullet points on her notepad. Something still wasn't adding up, yet she assumed Karen might not have come across as being a truthful businesswoman when she interviewed her earlier in the day.

"What are you thinking now?" Gerry asked, after noticing how long she'd spent psyching out and studying her written notes.

"Karen Oakfield we might need to bring her into the station and question her again. I don't think she's told us everything, she might be hiding a few skeletons in the cupboard, especially a few over her working relationship with Arthur." Sandra told him in reply.

"Why do you think it was the other way around, she was arguing with Arthur?" Gerry said.

"We don't really know for sure but we need to find as soon as possible. Get a few facts straight about who precisely disliked their boss before he attacked and killed. Surely he must have gotten someone else angry and worse given them a strong motive for murder" Sandra hinted.

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It hadn't taken much time for Brian and Jack before they'd succeeded to navigate the location of Oliver Trott's bookstore. They were discussing whether or not the bookshop owner could have changed his appearance."Possibly, well on the picture I looked at, Oliver had strawberry medium length hair, he could have changed it now." Brian bought to mind.

Jack sighed and constantly gestured for them to hurry up and walk inside the bookstore, his behaviour seemingly odd and unexplained "Look let's just go inside or we'll be attracting a crowd of teenagers any minute now!" he snapped at his friend.

"Alright...there's no need to tell me off." Brian said, a concerned look surfaced itself across his face especially within his eyes. They stepped through into the shop's entrance together, unaware of his friend's worried feedback stares Jack lead the way as he always preferred to. He studiously looked to the back room of the shop.

"Hello is anyone there? Mr Trott?" He called out, hoping to gain the attention of the person in the back.

"No wonder Esther loves this bookstore, it's only got books on Mills and Boon and Autobiographies, there's hardly any Military, Victorian or Crime History on the shelves." Brian pointed out, he was trying very much to take his mind off worrying about Jack.

Before Jack had the chance of shouting to the back room from the front of the counter, a well dressed and trim male appeared from one of the upper rooms in the shop. "Yes..I'm Oliver Trott...you're both from UCOS right?"

"Yes...that's right..how did you know?" Brian responded, he was baffled.

"Someone's tipped you off haven't they?" Jack worked it out straight away.

**End of Chapter**

**All Reviews are welcome**


	4. Chapter 4

**New Tricks: Driving Down The Wrong Lane**

**Chapter 4**

Oliver looked hesitantly at them, negative eye to eye contact and the occasional head scratch or two every 30 seconds gave Brian the conspicuous impression that this man was fretful and also looked as awkward as an under pressure politician in the House of Commons. "I don't want to say right now because if I do tell you both. I'm going to get a right pasting." he whispered to them. "To be perfectly honest, for me staying in here in the bookstore makes me feel like I'm more safer than I've ever been before, like nobody can get to me. So it's best you not find out about who telephoned me."

Brian reacted more surprised than Jack appeared to look especially with the answer the former Baxter's employee had given them but expectantly whenever a re-investigation case like this baffled him the former Detective Inspector's familiar hunches began to take effect once again. "Someone's blackmailing you to keep your mouth shut aren't they, that explains the reason why you're panicking"

"I'd rather you both leave as soon as possible, leave me out of your investigations" Oliver suddenly requested, his hands clearly shaking when he placed them on the counter.

Jack could tell that the man was anxiously trying to underplay Brian's unproven theory. "Don't play games with us Mr Trott. We came here to ask a few questions and we will find out who's threatening you."

"I'm not playing games...I just want to keep a low profile that's all...I'm just scared that if they'd discover that I've been talking to the police that they might harm my family." Oliver said.

"Well would you prefer if we interviewed you elsewhere Mr Trott?" Brian asked him with clear relevance.

"Where do you recommend?" Oliver eventually started to comply with them.

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Sandra and Gerry were now back at the office together, both of them embarking on an individual task of their own, Gerry was speaking to someone over the phone about a possible favour regarding this case. "I understand it's on confidential grounds mate but I'm only asking this just the once, look can you manage to get a name for me on your database...Martin Geoffrey..oh you can..thanks very much.." he was pleased with the answer he heard, his right hand gripped the telephone handle tighter.

Sandra herself, out of curiosity had decided to research some of the elusive history of Baxter Publishing on her computer and soon had uncovered some very intriguing secrets. According to the one of the newspaper clippings dated back from July 1986, Arthur Baxter had previously been arrested for and bought in for over an alleged Sexual Harassment accusation. "Not so Mr Perfect." She quietly whispered to herself as she looked into this furthermore, keen to see whether there might be any familiar names mentioned in the black and white newspaper article. Gerry came into her office to see what she might have found on the computer.

"Anything interesting?" He leaned over the desk, having a closer glance at the screen.

"Yes this, seems as though Arthur Baxter wasn't quite exactly the highly regarded and admired businessman he made himself out to be. As stated by this article, it seems he had an unpleasant working relationship with female employees. He was pretty much a womanizer and tried it on many times with numerous women who worked for him. Do we know when Karen first started working for him?" Sandra said, explaining this and started to wonder whether perhaps they ought to question Mrs Oakfield for a second time and ask her to be authentic this time around with her answers. Would she comply? or would she blame them for thinking she was guilty without crucial evidence, this thought played on Sandra's mind slightly more than she thought it would be.

"I don't know, she forgot to tell us didn't she, maybe she done this deliberately, to put us off and preventing us from asking her more questions. Do you think we'd better bring into the station for questioning? Well I think we should be doing." Gerry asked her.

Sandra didn't answer at first as she was still looking at the newspaper article on the glossy screen. She came across one potential name, Barry Oakfield. "Look at this, surely he must be a relation of hers, brother perhaps or maybe her husband."

"Don't think she's married now but I think she's engaged at the moment, so she claimed yesterday when we spoke to her. Suppose she could have been married, think I'll look into that." Gerry suggested on doing this as soon as he got back to his own desk.

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Later that day, Brian was sitting back on his chair behind his desk he looked a little subdued, he was giving the impression that despite twiddle his thumbs together he was probably more interested in playing the waiting game until he eventually decided to talk. The team presumed he might have heaps of things playing quietly on his mind. What they didn't know and what Brian only knew himself was that Oliver Trott's life might be in considerable danger and that the person who was blackmailing him could quite possibly be Arthur Baxter's killer.

"Not the same whenever he's quiet" Jack said, smiling.

"So you didn't find out much from this Oliver Trott then?" Gerry asked.

"Not too much, but he's a frightened man, someone's certainly desperate to make sure he isn't going to tell us anything. We asked him but he wouldn't give us a name. I think we'd better keep a surveillance on his bookstore, see who goes in and out. Oliver's met us, Gerry how would you feel about going undercover?" Jack suggested, thinking this would be an excellent idea.

"Me?...I'm not actually keen enthusiast on books." Gerry claimed.

"Oh go on Gerry, it'll give you more of a chance on brushing up on your French speaking skills." Sandra said, smiling.

"Oh alright.." Gerry sighed, finally agreeing with them. "I can go after lunchtime if it'll make you all happy."

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**End of Chapter**

**All Reviews are welcome**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks for the reviews for the previous chapters.**

* * *

**Driving Down the Wrong Lane **

**Chapter 5**

A little after 2pm later that afternoon, Gerry had reluctantly gone undercover at Oliver Trott's bookstore as agreed with the rest of the team three hours ago. He didn't seem to think too much of the available books stacked on the shelves, he picked up one and analyzed it closely, Great Railways of the Scottish Highlands he knew Brian would absolutely love this particular book.

"Have you found anything interesting to read Sir?" A younger male, presumably aged around 30-35 years old, asked him.

"No not yet, Oh actually I don't suppose you have any of Nigella Lawson's cookery books do you? It's just that I've been looking in every book shop in the high street this afternoon and I haven't been able to find the one I want." Gerry asked the younger man, who he noted didn't seem to look too experienced to be a bookstore assistant.

"I'll have to ask the manager Oliver who's over there, when he's get off the phone and I'll definitely ask him, he knosw more than me about the latest batch of books coming into the store." The man nodded and turned to walk over to Oliver, who seemed to be having an argument which someone over the phone. Gerry picked up on this straight away as he observed the stressful and nervous looking Oliver standing behind the counter.

The young man tapped him on the shoulder as he tried to get his boss' attention. "What the bloody hell do you want Greg! can't you see that I'm busy on the phone!." Oliver shouted at him as he bought the phone away from his left ear.

"Look I'm sorry for disrupting you but there's a customer who wants to know if we're selling of Nigella Lawson's latest cooking books." Greg apologized, feeling slightly awkward and embarrassed as he managed to take in his boss' unexpected bad mood.

"I'm sorry about this, we'll have to speak later when I've go plenty of free time. I'll phone you back around 6pm. Okay, Bye." Oliver self confidently finished his conversation on the phone and without replying to what he thought had been Greg's ridiculous question, he then went into one of the back rooms in the shop to have a look. This unfolding commotion certainly made Gerry suddenly question the fact that Oliver came across as somebody who looked restless and agitated about something he'd been discussing on the phone.

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In a smart enough bid to help boost his buoyancy and uplift his below par mood, Brian was playing Angry Birds on his computer and was doing incredibly well. "Hey look at this Jack, I've only gone and completed 20 bloody levels and got myself a score of 77789644. Hee hee brilliant." He simply couldn't hide the delight expressed across his face.

Jack sighed to some extent, he looked almost annoyed particularly after having put up with watching his friend, punching the air with excitement. "So I can see. You seem to be forgetting something most important though Brian, that you should be concentrating more on our latest unsolved re-investigation case and not on your magnificent computer game score otherwise our very own Angry Bird will have you flung into the air as high as possible."

"Our very own Angry Bird? you don't mean Sandra do you?" Brian asked him, he'd known that obviously at one time he had come under some challenging criticism for not having been paying attention and allowing himself to become sidetracked by bringing Scampi into work and finding himself getting addicted to Instagram and Facebook, going under the name of RetroCop999.

"Well I wouldn't be nicknaming Gerry an Angry Bird now would I" Jack laughed out loud and looked towards a smiling Sandra, who had been listening in on her colleagues' attention grabbing conversation.

"May I remind you both, Strickland hasn't actually given us too long on cracking this re-investigation case, so we're going to have as hard as nails to get a good result on this. Jack have you managed to search for anybody else who just so happened to work for Arthur Baxter?" Sandra asked him. As a team she believed they really ought to verifying evidence more closely whenever they came across some and also for them proving themselves and proving Strickland wrong, concerning his small doubts about them.

Jack suddenly remembered about the search he'd completed on his computer around 20 minutes ago. "One resulted name did come up, when we questioned her, it seems that Karen forget to tell us something else...her first husband, John Ferguson was working at the office alongside his wife."

"Really...that's very interesting. I reckon we should bring her in for questioning after all." Sandra suggested. This unexpected new name was surprising to say the least, Karen hadn't mentioned she'd been married twice, the question now was she simply attempting to protect her former husband or had been abusive towards her in their marriage and was she trying desperately to block out any mention of his name altogether.

"I'll try and search for a listed address for John Ferguson shall I." Brian suggested. "Ferguson, that's very Scottish surname isn't it." he humorously whispered to himself just as he began to start quickly typing up this particular name onto the computer keyboard. Jack and Sandra left him to it, they were heading off out of the UCOS office together. Both of them were equally hopeful and optimistic that Karen wouldn't play down their accusations and that she would agree to be interviewed again at the station. They honestly believed that the truth might indeed lie with her.

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"Where's the Guvenor and Jack gone now? I've got some terrific news to tell them." Gerry was quite surprised to find the office almost deserted, luckily Brian was there running it on his own. Gerry couldn't hide the fact that he'd been looking very bubbly and in high spirits, something that seemed absolutely very rare for him.

"Don't tell me you've pulled." Brian joked.

Gerry couldn't wait any longer and decided to tell Brian first before the others got back. "Oh ha ha very funny. No it's concerning Oliver Trott. My helpful ears just so happened to overhear the name of the person he's being blackmailed by, to keep his mouth shut. James Ferguson...who on the phone sounds like a right bullying bloke. "

"Oliver's made it clear he doesn't want to answer, any questions we ask him." Brian sighed, looking unconvinced.

"Yeah but he might open up to you Brian. It's worth a try I suppose." Gerry suggested.

**End of Chapter**

**All Reviews are welcome**


	6. Chapter 6

**New Tricks: Driving Down The Wrong Lane**

**Chapter 6**

After spending some considerable time contemplating over Gerry's decent suggestible idea on attempting to persuade the former office publisher on coming clean off the record about whom exactly was blackmailing him into keeping tight lipped. Brian didn't hang around in the office for long soon after and on his accord was now cycling towards Oliver's corner bookshop. He was remaining hopeful that Gerry's idea might actually work if not then he honestly would start to believe that the re-investigation would be going straight back to square one. Even at the end of the day if the team chose to update Strickland on what they'd found out up to now about the onetime mysterious goings-on at Baxter Publishing, word of mouth would simply be not good enough without provided evidence. Going along with their gut feelings and expertise, Brian knew they actually had to continue digging hard until they could get a definite outcome on the case.

As he cycled on and slowly approached the bookstore on the corner street, an unpleasant and aggressive sight soon greeted him. Two thug heavies had beaten someone up and had left their innocent victim half unconscious on the pavement, they were getting ready to flee from the scene. "Oi you bloody hooligans, get away from him!" he shouted as loud as he possibly could. In a fleeting moment choosing to risk his own life, he hurriedly ran at them with his raised bicycle above his head, he was only successful in scaring them away. As he tried to calm his frustrations down after watching them running down the nearest street he was soon joined and then surrounded by shocked shoppers and shop workers, who had come out of other nearby shops to see what all the shouting had been about a few minutes earlier. He turned back, so he check on the beaten and bruised man. Kneeling down on one leg, Brian placed his hand on the man's shoulder, checking on whether he might hopefully be conscious and have a beating pulse after the unprovoked attack on him.

In next to no time he acknowledged the identity of who this person was. "Bloody Hell Oliver. Can someone call an ambulance?" He shouted to the shoppers.

"Already been done." One of the shoppers shouted out. "He's going to be okay isn't he?" somebody asked.

"Hopefully, he didn't deserve this." Brian sighed, sadness engraved across his face.

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Meanwhile back at the office, Jack and Sandra were interviewing Karen in the interview room.

"This is unacceptable, I've already told you everything I can remember" Karen stressed anxiously.

"You have but there is one other thing you've forgotten to tell us when we first questioned you. Your first husband John, he worked alongside you and Baxter didn't he. Don't tell that didn't slip your mind." Sandra said. She was optimistic that this might prompt Karen into telling them the truth about the genuine goings on at the company back in the day.

Karen seemed unwilling to divulge any stories about her troubled marriage to her former husband. She was still acting close guarded as if she were keeping her cards close to her chest. "John loved his job just as much as I loved mine. He had no complaints or difficulties working alongside anybody. It was Arthur who picked him out as someone who he considered to be an easy target."

"Are you suggesting Arthur wasn't as well liked as everyone made him out to be?" Jack asked her, a look of surprise registering across his face.

"Yes...I know shocking isn't it." Karen replied straight away.

"John is a decent and thoughtful man and I know from the bottom of my heart that he wouldn't have laid a finger on him. He's never in his life intentionally hit out at anyone who's made his life a misery. He's told me he'd rather see someone else make bad people get what's coming to them." Karen suddenly told them out of the blue. Her answer was simply an intriguing one to say the least and an answer worth thinking over. Within seconds Gerry knocked at the interview room door, which bought a halt to the interview.

"Can I have a word, Guv'nor?" He asked her.

"Yes Gerry" Sandra nodded and got up from her chair, she followed him outside to the corridor. "What is it?"

"Brian's phoned, he found Oliver beaten up outside his shop and he looked to be in a bad way. Well he thinks that whoever's blackmailing Oliver might actually have seen or overheard us asking him questions about Baxter's death. This is a bit of a tricky situation isn't it, I mean if we continue to badger Oliver into telling us what he knows." Gerry knew that problems would continue to arise all the time.

"Yes it is." Sandra sighed.

"So what has Karen told you about her ex? Anything good that might help the re-investigation?" Gerry asked her.

"There was something she said,_ He told her he'd rather see someone else make bad people get what's coming to them._ Now that this might mean nothing but she's also claimed that her ex John was getting bullied by Arthur himself, perhaps he may have paid someone to give him a beating." Sandra openly suggested.

"Maybe so, there's one thing I wanted to ask you first. Was there any CCTV footage running in the building on the night of the murder?" He asked her, wondering if this might help them.

"Yes there was but according to the security guard Ken Goody who was working at the front desk of the building, when he was brought in to be interviewed, he just so happened to mention that the tape itself had vanished into thin air when one of the younger security guards checked to see if it was still where it was, the very next morning ."

"Do you think whoever killed Arthur might have decided to seize and destroy it?" Gerry pondered over this very thought.

"I think so, might guess it's most likely been destroyed." Sandra told him.

"Bloody great, Strickland's going to be annoyed when he finds out we've had no breakthroughs with this." Gerry wasn't too happy. Jack came out to join them in the corridor.

"Soon as you left the room Karen's suggested another name, James Lewis and according to her, he'd had plenty of run-ins with Arthur. At the last Christmas party they held for the workers, James threatened to ruin Arthur's reputation if he published a sordid story in one of the upcoming books that at the time was due to be published before Valentine's Day." Jack told them.

"Why she's telling us this now when we presented her the other day with the opportunity of telling us everything she knew when we interviewed her in her office." Sandra looked baffled.

"She's probably feeling guilty perhaps. Maybe the guilt's been quickly playing on her mind and she's thought by dismissing would prevent us from questioning her again." Jack suggested what he was thinking.

**End of Chapter**

**All Reviews are welcome**


	7. Chapter 7

**New Tricks: Driving Down The Wrong Lane**

**Chapter 7**

"Jack you do realize we need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible, bring James in for questioning. Ask him why he seemingly disliked Arthur and also ask where the hell he was on the night of the murder, ask him someone would vouch for him as his alibi perhaps." Sandra stressed. She was eager and willing to find all the missed evidence from the original investigation.

"Yes we do, I'll get my coat." Jack completely agreed with her on this.

Brian suddenly glanced up at them after having been eyeballing the latest worthy of note information he'd uncovered about James Lewis. "Hang on a minute, you need to find out his current address and where he's working at the moment, which I just so happen to have on my computer. Five years he moved out from a small council flat that he'd been living in Camden since the mid 1990's. Registered at agency for employment in Brighton and within 3 months, he found himself working for the Brighton Evening Express Newspaper."

"How did you manage to work this out suddenly?" Gerry asked him. He was wondering what website Brian had been searching on.

"It's not too difficult to figure it out Gerry, it's from The Brighton Argus, tells you everything you need to know this website does Gerry. According to this..." Gerry soon went to join him at his desk and proceeded in having a look at the newspaper's multicoloured homepage. "In July 2007 two Brighton Police detectives arrested him for GBH on a nightclub bouncer who denied him entrance into a local nightclub, but when it came to the choice of charging him, for some reason he was never actually charged for it. So they had no choice but to release him on bail."

"So who's to say maybe the nightclub bouncer probably chose to dropp the charges. You see what I don't get is, why this respected owner or the manager at the Evening Express didn't seem at all bothered to sack him, surely at the time and even nowadays he must still be unreliable and the employees must think he's a walking cannonball. Either he's got enough friends in high places to keep him out of trouble or perhaps he's just too much of a conniving spineless person who enjoys wiggling himself out of trouble." Gerry highlighted a thought provoking point for the UCOS team to bear in mind. For him he believed his orthodox instincts taking effect in his mind.

"That's a good point you've made, Brian so what's his address?" Sandra looked pretty much impressed with Gerry's suggestion.

"15 Kinglake Street, it's mentioned in this newspaper article." Brian replied quickly.

"Right me and Jack will travel to Brighton and in the meantime Brian you and Gerry mind the office and the phones you know just as a precaution if Strickland comes by to check on how we're getting on with this re-investigation." Sandra explained to them. Soon enough she made a quick departure out of office along with Jack.

"Is it me or does Sandra tend to get in a flap whenever anyone of us mention Strickers." Gerry started to mull over this theory.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In Brighton, it had merely taken Jack and Sandra approximately under an hour for them to finally arrive at this specified address of James Lewis'. "I'll knock" Jack suggested seeing as he was walking ahead of his colleague. He didn't think too much of 15 Kinglake Street as soon as he recognized where precisely the house was located within the merry go round looking street. He stepped closer towards the front arch gate and successfully managed to open it from it's catch within a matter of seconds. He looked around gingerly before making the first knock at the golden letterbox.

"Classy house Jack to have admit." Sandra said while admiring it's Edwardian features.

"Yes it is but unfortunately as Gerry told us it's likely been sold to him with dodgy money, threats and bribes." Jack commented as he started to jump this assumption.

"Seems so." Sandra supported his suspicions. They both heard noises coming from inside the front living room. A man aged around his mid-forties came into view and was soon unlocking the front door before eventually open it.

"Yes can I help you?" This person looked whiskery and exhausted.

"James Lewis?" Sandra asked.

"Yes that's me" He was able to confirm his name.

"I'm Superintendent Pullman this is my colleague Jack Halford, we're from the Unsolved Crime and Open Cases Squad. We're wondering whether you could answer some our questions over the unsolved murder of Arthur Baxter" Sandra asked him.

"I've got nothing to tell you about that man except I'm grateful that he isn't here anymore." James rudely responded, both of his eyes coldly glaring between Jack and Sandra while they were still standing on the front doorstep together. He looked like he might be a person who had a few skeletons hidden within his closet. "Now can you leave please." Once again he acted impolitely towards them.

"No, if you continue to at this way then, we have no choice but to arrest you. So I'd suggest to save yourself from further embarrassment, you'd better start by telling us the whole truth James about your onetime bad working relationship with Karen and also with Arthur. Well we've already been informed about the arguments you had with your boss." There was an unmistakable look of determination in Sandra's eyes while she spoke. She wasn't giving up on the chance of arresting the former Baxter's employee who showed her the worst bad manners she'd ever encountered.

"I'm not leaving my house, so please just bugger off the both of you." James still wasn't complying with them.

"No wonder you're an arrogant sod, your father was just the same, he was fist fighting at a West Ham United match when I and another colleague arrested him in the early 1980's." Jack said, while remaining tight lipped and watching Sandra sighing in despair, he'd remembered the surname_ Lewis._ "Never once approved nor complied with difficult police questioning after he was brought into the station. If I'm right in thinking I'd say you're about 30 minutes or so from turning into a carbon copy of your own father, so from stopping this from happening I'd suggest you should give yourself up." Jack recommended.

His words decisively struck a chord with James. "Okay I'll answer anything you want me to answer."

Sandra had changed her mind and decided on something differently. "We'll be bringing you in for questioning in London instead and you're coming with us right now." She didn't care what stupid enough excuses he was about to make. James nodded surprisingly, ultimately allowing himself to be driven into a London Police Station. As they took him from the house, Jack and Sandra remained blissfully unaware that they'd been getting watched by an unmarked black car from the left hand side of the road. The unidentified person in the car was lighting up a cigarette and vigilantly watching every movement they made. As soon as James was placed inside Sandra's car, this person made an important call.

"They're taking him for questioning, sit tight this might be a long night. No I'm sure he won't be revealing what he knows about Baxter's family history" This person suggested, it wasn't long before he finished the call.

**End of Chapter**

**All Reviews are welcome**


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